Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Hey, everyone, I decided to do another review off of a show or whatever that I was interested in. This time however, I decided to go review an anime that is based on a video game. This anime in question is called Legend of the Mystical Ninja. Of course this game is based on the popular Japanese series of games known as Ganbare Goemon. I happen to be a big fan of the games and wish they would translate and release the other games either on PSN, Virtual Console, or in some form of a compilation disc. Sadly though, I am not a big fan of the anime that much. To be honest, I wish I was, but before I talk about the bad parts let’s talk about the good parts, or what good there is in this anime.

Basically, the anime sets us up with the evil overlord named Makuamuge voiced by Rick Pearsall, who sends his evil henchman named Seppukumaru voiced by David Born and his four egg-like henchmen to the real world to take it over and make sure it is ready to be ruled by the evil lord himself. In the human world however, lives a little kid named Tsukasa voiced by Tiffany Grant, who is playing a Goemon game ironically as his father works with the FBI who is trying to find out why all these weird incidents are happening. Somehow, because of some weird plot hole, Goemon and the gang find themselves in the real world and now must protect it from the evil villains and have some fun on the side. Normally, I wouldn’t mind the story for a Mystical Ninja game, but this makes no sense!

Anyways, in each episode the villains do something to make people upset so they can get the rage power to power up, some scroll that can turn into some monster. Yeah, I don’t know how that works either. There is usually some kind of side story, like the gang going to a mall area or something. The show itself is made for kids and I can understand that, but I will explain my hatred for this show in a second. One thing I do like is that everyone is basically the same as their video game counterparts. I’m glad since I think they could have easily done something like Final Fantasy Unlimited. I have seen other animes that are based on Goemon and his adventures, but from what I have seen, they are very limited so I can’t do a review of those animes. Another thing I do like is some of the downright horrible humor of the game. I mean, yeah, the Mystical Ninja humor has always been a little stupid, but it was funny most of the time. Some of the humor in the anime is also funny, but it’s rare you hear a stupid joke that is actually funny. The voice acting isn’t all bad. I mean all the main heroes sound like they should, in a way. One of the more surprising voice actors for the show is the guy who does Goemon’s Vic Mignogna who is known for his voice work as Ed from Fullmetal Alchemist. The main heroes and villains do act their parts, which is good in a way.

Now let’s get to the part that I have been waiting for, the bad parts. What isn’t wrong with this anime? First off, the animation looks really bad. It looks cheap and it’s like they didn’t care how it looked. Second of all, why does everyone look like pencil doodles while everyone from the Goemon games look acceptable?! It’s like they were at the studio saying, “ Hey everyone! Umm were really low on budget so only make the bad guys and good guys look amazing and everyone else like crap.” Who would do that? If I were in charge of the anime, I would make sure to have a good budget and make Madhouse Studios to do the animation. The rest of the voice cast is HORRENDOUS! It seems like they just took someone off the street, offered them 20 bucks, and told them to voice act. I don’t know how I would do, but I think I can do a lot better than half of the cast here on the show. The giant robot fights are just plain awful. I’m glad they still use the usual way to summon Goemon’s giant robot, but man, does the limited animation hurt the fights. It makes it look like the giant robot moves like a dead walrus. Well, all of the animation makes everyone move like a dead walrus, but still. The egg-like henchmen are just pointless. They do little to nothing from what I have watched.

Overall, this is just horrible. Let me go through my questions again. Why does everyone except the villains and good guys look like pencil doodles? Why does everyone move like a dead walrus? Why does the giant robot move like a dead walrus? Why is half the voice acting horrible? Why can’t they just make this show take place in Edo Japan like the games do? Why do they have to add actual humans? WHY? WHY? WHY? Just skip this anime and go watch G-Gundam instead! Heck, watch anything that’s better than this!

Being a boy in the late 80’s and early 90’s was pretty good. There were a bunch of shows for us to watch like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman, Gargoyles, Superman, and other shows that were pretty good. However, if you wanted a live-action show that wasn’t a sitcom, we had Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It was cool when it was the old ones, and nowadays, there are a bunch of jokes we can make about it, but it has its charm. I’ll admit that I used to watch it, and I found it awesome back then. Since when something become popular, someone has to say, “Hey, we should make a game out of it”, we got a couple different games based on the Power Rangers. I am reviewing a game for the Super Nintendo that came out also on the Genesis and other consoles.

The main story of the Power Ranger’s game is basically like a bunch of the episodes in one game. The main villain Rita Repulsa has sent a bunch of monsters to take over Angel Grove, when there are millions of other cities to rule that aren’t being protected by techni-colored teenagers or techni-colored 20 year olds that act like teenagers. It is up to the Power Rangers to stop the evil monsters and Rita from taking over the city they protect. It’s like watching 5 episodes in a row. By today’s standards, that’s the new way of torturing terrorists. Natsume who is mostly famous for the Harvest Moon franchise, but has also made other games like Wild Guns and Ninja Warriors on the Super Nintendo, developed this game.

The game play featured in this game is a beat em’ up with more emphasis on plat forming than the beat em’ up parts, but there is mostly beat em’ up game play. You can choose from one of the five original rangers as you go through the level, beating down on Rita’s henchmen and then fighting a boss at the end of the level. You have your basic moves like a punch, kick and jump kick. This isn’t as deep as Final Fight or Ninja Warriors, but it gets the job done, more so than Splatterhouse. Halfway through the level, you will be turned into the buff power ranger form of yourself and can use a weapon. Now, each character does have their own move list, but they all basically share the same screen-clearing attack, which they call a bomb. It’s more impressive than the PS2 screw-up Power Rangers Super Legend by far. If you remember in that review, I said to pick this game up over the PS2 game. I still say that since I thought Super Legend was a horrible game.

The graphics are pretty good for Super Nintendo standards. They don’t push the limit like Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger, but they’re far better than any of the games LJN produced for the consoles. The music is also very good. It’s about as good as the soundtrack for most beat em’ ups like Final Fight and Streets of Rage, but it still sounds good. They even got the original intro song for the intro of the game to be excellently ported to the Super Nintendo, while the Genesis suffers in that area, but the Power Rangers game for that console is different and for another time. The plat forming elements are also very good and they don’t feel tacked on. They are very well executed and it’s fun to go through them.

Sadly, this game does suffer from a few things that hold it back. The game is pretty short and easy until a certain area. I know this was made for kids, but they could have at least upped the difficulty, but at least it isn’t Gradius or Battle Toads difficult. I also wish there was a 2-player option since it would be fun to go through the game with two players. Another thing I find weird is how buff the power rangers are. The kids themselves aren’t that muscular and it is just weird to look at. I also wish there were more zord battles since that is what you would watch Power Rangers for, to watch a giant robot kill a giant monster. At least the giant robot fights are a lot better than the PS2 version.

Overall, this is a good little game and is a good example of using the Power Rangers licenses to good use. I would say if you are collecting Super Nintendo games, pick this game up. It’s like Aladdin, it isn’t a triple A title, but it gets the job done as a good solid Super Nintendo game.

We as gamers have two categories of games we play. The first is games that we love and play over and over again because they are so good. The second category goes to games we just despise because they are poorly made and not fun to play. However, there is a secret category that we use that we don’t like to admit, but we play secretly, the guilty pleasure section. This category has games that we play because it’s a guilty pleasure to play. It could be good or bad or just in the middle. I even have a list of games that I find to be guilty pleasures like Tetris and Pokemon Puzzle League. I decided to add a new game that I haven’t played in years, but had some fun with while playing. This game can only be known as Pokemon Channel. Yeah, I know, I have said in the past that I don’t like Pokemon that much, but it is considered to be a guilty pleasure kind of franchise that a lot of people play and not admit it. While I haven’t played a new Pokemon game in like forever, I have picked up a Pokemon spin-off game once in awhile and this happens to be one of them.

The main plot of the game is that Professor Oak, the coolest professor ever is sending a special TV to trainers or just normal people like me that are meant to be enjoyed by both humans and Pokemon. He decides to send people Beta versions of these televisions as a group of Magnemites bring you the television with an unexpected guest, a Pikachu. He then decides to move in with you, and you two decide to watch the television and test it together and become friends.

The game play is somewhat like having one of those Tamagotchi pets or whatever they are called, but to be more precise, it’s like its spiritual prequel, Hey You! Pikachu. You basically do stuff like watch television channels, play mini-games, and other stuff. There is a good amount of stuff you need to do and meet multiple different Pokemon. There is actually a mini-series of shorts that is called the Pichu brothers. You can even get the Japanese version of it, which is pretty cool in my opinion, since the Japanese Dub is better. As you progress through the game, you and Pikachu will become closer, well as close as you can get with a video game character.

The graphics are as good as the other Pokemon games on the Gamecube. I’m not saying that they are bad or anything, but I will explain later in the review. The music is very well done in my opinion. It isn’t fully orchestrated stuff like Final Fantasy 6, but it’s a very calming soundtrack, which fits this game, since it’s more of a sit-down-and-calm-down kind of game. It is nice that they have more Pokemon in this game since in games like Hey You! Pikachu and Pokemon Snap, they only have a limited amount of Pokemon and it just seemed small.

However, there are a few reasons why this game did get harsh reviews and bad criticism. For one thing, a lot of people say that the game is boring, and I have to admit, when I played this game, I didn’t play it as long as other games like God of War 2 or Super Mario Galaxy. I only play this game when I need to chill or just kill some time. Like I said, the graphics aren’t bad, but they don’t do the Gamecube justice. I mean, if you look at games like Starfox Adventure or Resident Evil 4, the graphics on those games are amazing. The game also gets tediously repetitious. It seems like they can give you possibilities like battling Pokemon or making friends with them like inviting them over and such would be pretty interesting, but all you do is mainly watch TV, go around answering questions, and other simple stuff. Though those are just my ideas.

Overall, it’s an okay/somewhat bad game by today’s standards, but I find it a fun little title. Definitely worth about 5 to 10 dollars or maybe less. You can also get this as a WiiWare thing for 500 points. Like I said, it’s a guilty pleasure for me to play this game, and I am honestly excited about this next spin-off called Pokepark that is coming out this summer.

It’s a shame that some games that are critically successful can do so horrible financially. Sometimes, the result of that is the company that made the game can go out of business. No one will know why some games that get great reviews sell poorly. It could be the poor marketing of the game, but who really knows. A good example of this kind of situation is the two Tomba games for the Playstation 1. These two games are considered cult classics and are really good games. These are pretty hard to find and will cost a lot. I will be doing a review of the second game, Tomba 2 The Evil Swine Returns.

The main story of Tomba 2 revolves around Tomba who is living peacefully on an island, and living life to the fullest. That is until his childhood friend, Tabby, has been kidnapped by the evil pigs and it is up to Tomba and his friends to get her back and destroy the evil pigs once again! This has to be the first time where I have played a game where there is an evil pig.

The game play in Tomba is of a 2.5D side-scrolling action plat former where you control Tomba in a 2.5D/3D world, kind of like the second Klonoa game or the remake of the first Klonoa game, but you get the idea. This time, all of Tomba is rendered 3D instead of how the last game was with 2D characters and 3D backgrounds. Though I say it’s like Klonoa, I feel like it’s more similar to games like Banjo Tooie, since you do travel to multiple worlds and you have to backtrack through them with different items and such to get to that specific thing in that specific world. You could compare the style of game play here with the later Castlevania games like Symphony, but I chose Banjo Tooie because of the cute and colorful character designs. Your main weapon of attack is a spike ball on a rope, called a jack, for some reason, that is good for hitting evil pigs. Though you truly get rid of them by jumping on them and then throwing them. You gain other weapons, like a boomerang and a ice-throwing star-thing, and each weapon will help you with certain enemies and certain objectives, like the ice shuriken helps you get to the mining town level. You will be doing a lot of backtracking for when you have the right items so you can capture the big bad pig in certain areas. You also have healing items, and items that teleport you to different areas, but it doesn’t take that long to get from place to place. You also gain different pairs of clothes that do stuff like make you faster or glide in the air, which is pretty cool in my book.

The graphics in the game are colorful and cute-looking. I definitely like the whole design of the worlds and the characters that live in them. I like it how you have to fight evil pigs. It’s pretty odd, but fun to fight all the different types. The music is also very cheery. A reason why the designs of the characters are so well done is because the man, Tokuro Fujiwara who is famous for producing the Megaman and Ghost and Goblin series two of Capcom’s most famous franchises, designed them. Overall, it’s a pretty nice package.

Sadly, every game has its faults, and I do need to exploit them even if they are just small little gripes. First off is the voice acting. This was when voice acting was fairly new, but most games had pretty good voice acting, but this is one of those games that had some pretty bad voice acting. It isn’t the worst, but it’s pretty retched at some points. You can get lost and confused easily if you don’t know what to do. It took me a bit of time before getting to certain areas by finding out what I had to do.

Overall, this is a truly great game, and one of the best PS1 games ever. The bad part of this is that the Tomba games have gained cult classic status and are very VERY hard to find. Even if you do find it, you will have to pay about 50 to 60 bucks. I found my copy of Tomba 2 for 40 dollars, which is cheaper, but still very pricey if you’re trying to keep on a budget. If you do find it for less, then I would say pick it up. Like I said, it is a truly great game for the PS1 library.

In 2009, when people were thinking of games of the year, I think there were quite a few that fought for the position of game of the year. Games like Assassin’s Creed 2 and Batman Arkham Asylum were pretty good competition, but there was only one game that people chose or voted for to be game of the year. That game in question is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the Playstation 3. Now, the first game, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune came out in 2007 and did get pretty good reviews, but was somewhat obscured by other games like Halo 3 and Super Mario Galaxy. It was still one of the better games for the Playstation 3 back in 2007. I decided to take a look at both of the Uncharted games and I will start with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune on the Playstation 3.

The main story of Uncharted feels like a bit of Romancing the Stone combined with a little Indiana Jones, and a bit of I am Legend, but you will get that last part when you reach the end of the game. The main story revolves around Nathan Drake, a handsome young treasure hunter who is trying to find his late ancestor’s last treasure along with his partner, Victor Sullivan, and a female reporter named Elena Fisher. They all find Nathan’s ancestor’s coffin and they find a diary inside the coffin that leads to the final treasure of Francise Drake. They end up in a treasure hunt with two other people trying to find the same thing that Nathan is trying to find, El Dorado.

Gameplay featured in Uncharted is of a third person shooter, mixed in with some platform/puzzle solving elements. The third person shooting element is nothing new if you have played games like Gears of War or Army of Two. You basically have a small variety of guns with the usual suspects, like a machine gun, shot gun, and the likes with nothing that special. You can also blind-shoot enemies while behind cover, go to a over-the-shoulder shot, and shoot enemies, and of course there are the melee attacks that you can use if you want to go head-on with an enemy. During the game, you will also be in charge of handling a machine gun on a jeep and drive a jet ski through some areas, which is cool since it keeps the game play fresh and not become repetitive. The plat forming elements are basically trying to find the right thing to climb on and then jumping to something else that you can climb on, kind of like in Assassin’s Creed, since you can climb on a lot of stuff, but some are hidden and just take a leap of faith to find the right thing to grab on to. There are also quick-time events, but they won’t take over the game play like Dante’s Inferno.

The graphics for a game from 2007 are pretty good. It’s nice that the developers Naughty Dog took time with this title and made this game one of the best-looking games on the PS3. It’s also good to put down that there are some cool little details, like Nathan’s clothes getting wet when you get out of the water, and leaves and plants blowing to the side by the breeze. It just shows they wanted to make this game look good. The music is also phenomenal, with the score composed by Greg Edmonson. This guy is known for the soundtrack to the cancelled show, Firefly, and a number of episodes of King of the Hill. The voice work is also just as good with Nathan Drake voiced by Nolan North, who for some reason, keeps getting into my reviews, Victor Sullivan voiced by Richard McGonagle, Elena Fischer voiced by Emily Rose, and the villains voiced by Simon Templeman and James Sie, who voiced Gabriel Roman and Eddy Raja.

There are some shortcomings that I think made the first game go under the radar of 2007. First part is the enemy variety. The enemies become repetitive until near the end, but I will explain in a second. Near the end of the game, you will encounter zombie vampire creatures that are from a major plot twist in the end of the story. There is build-up to them, but I just don’t think they fit. In a way, I was expecting Mayan Indians, but instead we get zombie vampire things that make this game like a horror survivor game like Resident Evil 5, and not an adventure game with themes of Romancing the Stone and Indiana Jones. It just seems like they were not needed since they appear only in the end of the game. Don’t get me wrong, we do get clues and hints of them being around, but I didn’t expect zombie creatures. Well, I guess it did work, but still. The game is also short, clocking in around 8 to 10 hours. After beating the game, there is really no reason to play it again unless you want to find all the treasure in the game to unlock stuff. There is no multiplayer also, which took me by surprise, but then again I don’t usually care for the multiplayer.

Overall, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was a good, but somewhat short experience. This game is worth a rental to see what started it all, but I will need to play the second game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in the future. I was glad to finally play this game and I hope I enjoy the second game even more. I’m glad Naughty Dog has made a new franchise for gamers to play. I wonder what they will do with the next Jak and Daxter games.

Even though I love American super heroes like Batman, the Question, Hellboy, and many others, I happen to like Japanese super heroes a little more. Now, there are a few of the shows that have come out here in America, but most of the time it’s just the Power Rangers being adapted to American audiences, but sometimes, others have made it over here like Gridman and of course, Ultraman. However, Power Rangers has constantly always been the one to come here to America. Another Japanese super hero series, Kamen Rider has only come over twice in the form of Masked Rider and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. I have watched both of these shows, and I just don’t like what they have done with them. That is why I mostly watch the Japanese versions of the show on youtube and such. The most recent one I have been watching is called Kamen Rider Double. It’s an interesting series, and it somewhat goes back to some of its old roots and some small references to the old series or another series that was made by the same person who made this series.

Before I start with the story of Kamen Rider Double, let me explain a little history. The very first Kamen Rider series was released on April 3rd, 1971 and it ran for 98 episodes ending on February 10th, 1973. It became so popular that more and more Kamen Rider series were made with the current one being Kamen Rider Double. In total, there are 11 different Kamen Rider series. The person behind the original Kamen Riders is Shotaro Ishinomori, who is famous for making series like Kikaider, Robot Detective K, the first Japanese Power Ranger series, and one of my favorite comics, Skullman. He sadly died at the age of 60 due to heart failure on January 8th 1998. I feel bad, since I wish I could have met this wonderful man to tell him how much I enjoy his super hero shows. Anyway, let’s get started with the latest of the series, Kamen Rider Double.

The main story of Kamen Rider Double revolves around two detectives named Shotaro Hidari, portrayed by Renn Kiriyama who is the self proclaimed, “ Hard-Boiled Detective”. His partner is named Philip, who is portrayed by Masaki Suda, who is pretty much the smartest man on earth, in my opinion. They also have the help of Akiko Narumi, portrayed by Hikaru Yamamoto, who owns the building that Shotaro and Philip work in and is the chief of the agency. During the series, they take different and unusual cases that are happening around their city. The crimes themselves are caused by beings called Dopants. Of course, when things get a little dangerous, Shotaro and Philip transform into the powerful hero of the show, Kamen Rider Double. Of course, they get help from multiple people like the Futo Police Department and the second Kamen rider of the show, Kamen Rider Accel, who is actually Ryu Terui, portrayed by Minehero Kinomoto.

Let’s first talk about the two heroes of the show themselves. First off is Kamen Rider Double. Now, the way Shotaro and Philip transform is the use of a belt that they use things called “ Gaia Memories” that look like flash drives into the belt and they combine into the powerful Kamen Rider. The unique thing is that Shotaro is the one who transforms into the hero himself as Philip’s spirit is also put into Shotaro, which gives the theme of the two different-colored sides, which in a way is a reference to Kikaider since he also had two different-colored sides. They have 6 different memories that give them different forms and different attacks. Basically, Shotaro controls the left side and Philip controls the right side. I know this is a little confusing, but you really need to see the show to see what I am talking about. Later in the series however, Philip gains a unique memory called “Fang” which looks like a small raptor, where he takes control of the hero himself and Shotaro takes a break. Like I said, you need to see the series itself to see what I mean. The next Kamen Rider is a little simpler, but is pretty strong, Kamen Rider Accel. Ryu can transform into Kamen Rider Accel by using a belt that looks like motorcycle hand bars with a speedometer in the middle and only needs one memory to transform. He can also turn into a motorcycle form, and use a pretty heavy sword that looks like it was combined with an engine. Of course, with both Kamen Riders, they can use attachments that take forms like a beetle, bat, frog, spider, and so forth. The main form of transportation for Double is a motorcycle that can have different attachments for stuff like flying or going faster and such. Accel also has something like Double, but since Accel can turn into a motorcycle, he has a tank-like attachment that he can be equipped to.

Now, let’s talk about the villains, the Dopants. Dopants are not natural monsters. They are humans who use Gaia Memories without using some form of belt, so they don’t get infected with bad side effects. Normally, people buy the memories and get a tattoo that looks like a USB drive port on their body. The side effects are of course turning into a monster and using that memories special abilities, but if you don’t use a belt of some sort, the person over time will go insane and go berserk, and will not be able to control their actions. Now, in the past, Kamen Rider monsters have usually been based on an animal with some kind of twist to them, but the monsters in this show are rather unique, and go off the beaten path of normal Kamen Rider monsters. For example, here are the names of some of the monsters you will see in the series, Violence, Sweets, Magma, Puppeteer, Ice Age, Liar, T-Rex, and Money to name a few of them. It’s always interesting to see what kind of monster you will see in each episode and what kind of twist there is. The people using the memories are usually using it for some reason of their own, like the Sweets Dopant was kidnapping pastry chefs to please the Sweet’s user’s sweet tooth, or how the Liar Dopant was using his powers to get an untalented musician through a music competition, but is only doing it if he gets paid. It’s very interesting since each character has his own agenda. I think one of the more heart torn humans was a author who was using the Puppeteer memory to get back at critics who didn’t like his book that was based on his dead daughter. He just didn’t want people bad-mouthing him when he put all of his love into that book. The main villains besides the Dopants are the people of the Sonozaki Family. They act like the mafia family of the show, who are secretly producing the gaia memories, and making people buy them for their own uses. This includes Ryubee Sonozaki, the father of the family who wields the Terror memory and is played by Minori Terada. The two other members are two sisters, one of which is Wakana Sonozaki, who wields the Claydoll memory and has her own radio show and is played by Nastuki Kasa. The other sister is Saeko Sonozaki, the older sister who uses the Taboo memory and is played by Ami Namai. They are all unique and it’s like the old Kamen Rider series, having a group of people behind all the monsters, and who can turn into monster themselves.

While I like the show overall, there are a few things that bug me about it and have somewhat bugged me in the past series. Why do you take two episodes to learn about one enemy? It’s annoying since they won’t appear again in the series. I mean, I know they had the guy who used the Nasca memory for a while, but that was only because he was married to one of the girls in the Sonozaki family and got killed because he wasn’t doing his job right. Why didn’t they decide to do animal-based monsters like last time? I mean, it made it like the monster list from Kamen Rider Super-1, where half of the monsters are based on some real life object, like soap or an umbrella. Oh, and to add on to the last sentence, I’m not joking, there are actually two monsters based on an umbrella and one based on soap in Kamen Rider Super-1. I can see why they would want to change it up a bit, but some of the ideas are a little silly at best. Another thing I’ve noticed is that the Dopants that are based on animals can transform into large forms of those said animals except for one, the Bird memory. Why can’t the person who used the Bird memory transform into some giant bird? It’s kind of redundant, since the others could transform into some monstrous version of that said animal.

Overall, I really enjoy this series, and I wish the Kamen Rider series could just come over in America with just English subtitles. If you’re interested to learn more about Kamen Rider, you can email me, and I’ll give you a basic jist of it.

I have been recently trying out different compilation discs for different arcade games. I still think two of the best are the Capcom games and the SNK compilation. I do have multiple others to try out, like the Taito Legends 1 and 2, and the Activision Anthology. However, there are some terrible ones like Atari Anthology and Intellivision Live. I recently got a new one through Gamefly.com called Data East Arcade Classics. Now, just like the Intellivision and Midway reviews, I am going to talk about a few games, and then end it with the bad parts of the whole compilation. Just a heads up, I have played the games I listed below with both the Wii and GC controller. I prefer the GC controller.· Heavy Barrel: Heavy Barrel is a top-down-run-and-gun shooter that stars a soldier who is trying to stop a group of terrorists who have taken over a facility and have planned to launch nukes. Like I said above, Heavy Barrel is a top-down shooter where you control your soldier and shoot whoever gets in your way. You also have a 360-control scheme where you can shoot everywhere and not just in front of you, which is interesting since this game does play like the top-down levels of Contra or games like Ikari Warriors. You can also pick up upgrades, like a spread gun or a flamethrower, which is fun since your normal weapon has a limited range and you will want to find an upgrade as soon as you can. I do like this game and I think it’s one of the better games on the disc

· Joe and Mac (A.K.A Caveman Ninja): I know a lot of people like this game and I decided to take a look myself about this unusual game. You play as two cavemen who are on an adventure to save your females that were taken from a different caveman tribe. It’s basically a side-scrolling plat former, like Adventure Island, in a way. You can pick up multiple weapons and can hold down the attack button to make a stronger attack. A unique twist is that your health bar will go down unless you keep eating, just like Adventure Island on the NES and the first Wonder Boy game on the Master System. I find that interesting, since this game has nothing in common with the two games I put above.

· Magical Drop 3: Magical Drop 3 is a puzzle game that is very similar to games like Puyo Pop and Puzzle Bobble, where you shoot orbs at other orbs that link with three or more to make them disappear. You go across the screen and pick up one or more orbs of the same color, and then launch them into the ceiling into other orbs of the same color and make them disappear. Of course, you can make combos and make more disappear until the whole ceiling area disappears and you move onto the next level.

I know there are more games that are memorable, like Burger Time and Bad Dudes, but I just wanted to list 3 that I thought were decent in my opinion. I tried looking for info on Wizard Fire, but I couldn’t, which sucks. Now, I am going to talk about the bad parts of this whole disc. The controls don’t feel polished enough. I kept dying, and it seems like I couldn’t react to attacks fast enough in a majority of the games, and it just became so frustrating since I was excited to play some of these games. There is no way to change the difficulty. I find that even more annoying since I like to play a game on the easy mode, then switch it to harder difficulties if I would want to keep playing it on harder and harder difficulties. The presentation on most of the games is poor at best. They just don’t hold up well, and are just an eyesore to look at. The selection of games is also very poorly done. I don’t even recognize most of the games, and I just chose two of them that I explained by sheer luck.

Overall, this is a horrible collection of games. I would rather look up the cartridge form of some of these games instead of getting this collection. I say, skip it. It isn’t the worst, but it isn’t the best. It is definitely one of the poorest made collections ever. Just go get the Capcom collection games instead. You will thank me when you do.